The mastermind behind Rameshwaram Cafe blast in Bengaluru, Abdul Matheen Taha is said to one of the Islamic State terrorist group's "high value assets" in India. On Friday, Taha and his aide Mussavir Hussain Shazib, who placed the bomb at the cafe on March 1, were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from their hideout near Kolkata.
The two accused, who were brought to Bengaluru late Friday night and were taken to a detention cell in Madiwala, will be produced before an NIA judge at his residence near Koramangala today.
Following their arrest, an NIA special court granted a three-day transit remand of the two men. The remand is scheduled to end on Sunday.
Taha, wanted by the NIA for the past five years, is said to have planned and plotted the Bengaluru cafe blast. He has also been linked to the IS-sponsored pressure cooker bomb blast in Mangaluru in November 2022, the Shivamogga trial blasts in 2022 and the Al Hind module case in 2020.
It is said that Taha was in direct contact with a "colonel", whose name has surfaced in several cases across South and Central India.
According to the reports, Taha conducted a recce of the cafe for over a week in an effort to understand the blind spots. He formed entry and exit plans for the bomber in the hotel and from the city.
The NIA demanded the three-day transit remand of the accused for a number of reasons, including the large amount of evidence the anti-terror agency collected that need to be corroborated.
The NIA wants to interrogate the accused on recovered CCTV footage, as well as on the money they received suspected to be from illegal foreign transactions for the blast.
Before the transit remand ends on Sunday, the NIA will continue to interrogate the two accused and produce them before a special court of the agency on Monday.
